On April 10th, Dr. Ming Zhang’s “Planning for Megaregions” Class and the CM2 center hosted Ray Miller, Jr., AICP, the Transportation Planning Coordinator for the City of Georgetown, TX, for a guest lecture. Ray has extensive experience in transportation planning in Texas, with prior work experience with the City of Lakeway, TxDOT, City of Weimar, and City of Victoria. While with TxDOT, he was the project manager on the Long Star Passenger Rail project from Georgetown to San Antonio.
During his lecture, Ray covered the history of transportation infrastructure initiatives in the Texas Triangle and current initiatives that will link the Texas Triangle anchor cities of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston.
Ray began his lecture with an overview of transportation infrastructure history, both nationally and in Texas, covering the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991 (ISTEA), the Austin-San Antonio Commuter Rail project, SH 130, the Texas TGV high-speed rail project, and the Tran-Texas Corridors (TTC) proposal.
Looking forward, Ray covered the latest in Texas high-speed rail initiatives, including the proposed Texas Central line between Dallas and Houston as well as the Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study (TOPRS). Ray also covered three lessons learned from the failed Lone Star rail attempt, which included the project losing support after the project had been in the works for so long without any real progress.
Ray wrapped up his presentation with some final thoughts about project delivery’s effect on a project’s success including: the difference private funding versus state/federal funding can make on a project’s timeline; the cost of proposed right-of-way (ROW) and how the thoroughfare process can help maintain ROW for transportation while keeping costs down; and how expedited EIS approval processes can help ensure a transportation project’s success.
Missed the lecture?
